"Do you wish me to tell you?" cried Maurice.
"Certainly," replied Geneviève.
"Well, then, because I—"
Maurice stopped; he was going to say, "because I love you."
"I cannot tell you why," replied Maurice, coloring. The fierce Republican near Geneviève was as timid and as confused as a young girl.
Geneviève smiled.
"Say," replied she, "there is no sympathy between you, and I may perhaps believe you. You are of a sanguine temperament, have a brilliant intellect; and you are a man of birth and education, while Morand is a merchant grafted on a chemist. He is timid and retiring. It is this timidity that deters him from taking the first step toward your acquaintance."
"And who asks him to make the first advance toward me? I have made fifty to him, and he has never responded. No," continued Maurice, shaking his head; "that cannot be the reason."
"What is it, then?" said Geneviève.
Maurice chose to remain silent.